Richmond, Virginia, is chosen as the Confederate…

Richmond, Virginia, is chosen as the Confederate capital on May 21, the Confederacy having promised to move its national capital from its provisional home in Montgomery, Alabama. (The government will occupy its new quarters in early June.)

The city is located at the end of a long supply line, which makes it difficult to defend, requiring the bulk of the Army of Northern Virginia and arguably the Confederacy's best troops and commanders.

It will became the main target of Union armies, especially in the campaigns of 1862 and 1864–65.

In addition to Virginia and Confederate government offices and hospitals, a railroad hub, and one of the largest slave markets, Richmond has the largest iron foundry and arms factory during the war, the Tredegar Iron Works, which will turn out artillery and other munitions, including the seven hundred and twenty-three tons tons of armor plating that will cover the CSS Virginia (the salvaged former steam frigate USS Merrimack), the world's first ironclad warship used in war, as well as much of the Confederates' heavy ordnance machinery.